The number of students achieving a first in their undergraduate degree has increased dramatically in recent years, with a 33 per cent increase in the number of first-class honours awarded between 2012/13 and 2014/15.
In 2012/13, 397 students were awarded firsts, according to the most recent Senior Lecturer’s Report. Two years later, this had increased to 527, meaning that nearly 20 per cent of students received firsts that year.
The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences dominated the proportion of firsts awarded for the last three years, with 173 firsts awarded in 2014/15 compared to 158 in the Faculty of Engineering, Maths and Science and 112 in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
The trend for gold medal recipients has been shown to have varied more readily in the past number of years. The number stood at 78 gold medals awarded in 2012/13 before declining to 49 in the following year and rising to 67 for the year ending May 2015. Of this cohort, 12.7 per cent were awarded with a gold medal in 2014/2015 compared with 19 per cent in 2012/13.
The gold medal is Trinity’s most prestigious undergraduate award and demands overall degree percentages in excess of 70 per cent. The criteria in most instances requires the student to achieve a grade between 73 per cent and the recognised upper limit of 75 per cent.
In line with the trend for gold medals, a cross-faculty breakdown reveals no clear trend in the awarding of gold medals. The number of gold medal recipients in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences declined to 17 in 2014/15 compared with 25 in 2012/13. Conversely, the Faculty of Health Sciences saw an increase in recipients from five in 2013/14 to 21 in 2014/15.
The report shows that of those who received a gold medal, the split in gender has remained close to fifty-fifty, which the exception of 2012/13 where 57 per cent of gold medals were awarded to female students.
In some courses, such as law and business and BESS, over 25 per cent of students received firsts in 2013/14. In the same year, other courses, such as law and political science, 61 per cent of students received a first in 2013/14.
The increase in the number of first class degrees awarded nationwide has been painted by some as what has popularly become known as “grade inflation”. Figures reported by the Irish Times in October 2014 showed that over 10 years until the end of 2012/13, Dublin City University (DCU) and University College Cork (UCC) there was a 17.7 per cent of students at DCU achieving a first class grade, the highest such percentage anywhere in the country.
